Download Working in partnership Partnerships around the world 20

Annual report 2010
Working in partnership
Partnerships around the world
International
Overseas France
AN
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ER • Framework agreements
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and with the Arab Center for the Study of Arid Zones
and Dry Lands • Launch of a programme
with the Egyptian Science and Technology Development Fund
• Joint organisation with CEDEJ (CNRS) of symposium
on “Gender, cities and local governance in the Arab world and
the Mediterranean region” in Cairo, Egypt • Round table
on legislative policy in Arab and Muslim countries, Cairo
• Signing of five research and training agreements with Lebanese
academic and scientific institutions • Establishment of a science and
technology monitoring unit in Lebanon in collaboration with the National
Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon • International workshop on migration
in the eastern Mediterranean, in Beirut • Start of SudMed programme in Syria
and Lebanon, on the functioning of hydro-systems in semi-arid regions
•International workshop on water in irrigated areas, at Al-Baath University,
Homs, Syria • Joint organisation with AUF (Agence universitaire de la
francophonie) of a conference on remote sensing, climate change and
environment in Monastir, Tunisia• Conference of French-speaking
countries on HIV/AIDS in Casablanca, Morocco
• FRIEND conference on water resources, Fez, Morocco
23 • Symposium on mycorrhizal symbiosis and
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Morocco.
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water and wastewater management department •
Framework agreements with Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso
universities in Burkina Faso, Abomey Calavi and Parakou universities
in Benin and Abdou Moumouni university in Niamey, Niger • Meeting
with founder members of CIREM international research and education
centre, Mbour, Senegal • Scientific partnership agreement with
Senegalese NGO Espoir for bilharzia and malarif control research
• Opnning of a geology laboratory involving Institut Fondamental d’Afrique
Noire, Cheikh Anta Diop University and the IRD, in Dakar, Senegal
• Closure of the programme on malarial infections in newborns, Benin
• World rice congress, Mali • Meetings of emerging IRD partner teams working
in the human and social sciences and health, in Bamako, Mali • Conference
on society-environment-climate interactions in West Africa (AMMA RIPIECSA), in Abidjan-Cocody, Côte d’Ivoire • International symposium
of the Euro-African Association for the Anthropology of Social
Change and Development (APAD) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
• Training workshops in Niger, under the GVal project
to support research on food security
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and nutrition.
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• Post-earthquake missions to Haiti and Chile
• Creation of two international joint laboratories
for the study and promotion of Andean and Amazonian flora (LAVI)
and on the Humboldt current system (DISCOH), Peru • In Brazil:
international conference on climate, sustainability and
sustainable development in the semi-arid regions, in Fortaleza;
symposium on Latin American diasporas, in São Paulo; symposium on
the isotope geology of South America, in Brasilia • Delivery
of the results of the TOXBOL programme on metal pollution in the Andes,
Bolivia • Workshop on the variability of El Niño and climate change in South
America, in Guayaquil, Ecuador • Symposium on priority sites for
the conservation of biodiversity in the Bolivian Amazon, in Santa Cruz,
Bolivia • International workshop on the western Amazon basin
with special focus on biodiversity, in Iquitos, Peru
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• Opening of the Polynesian centre
for the study of and income generation from island
biodiversity, involving the University of French Polynesia,
Institut Louis Malardé and IRD • Lengguru-Kaimana expedition:
exploration of the biodiversity of Western Papua’s karst country
• Launch of the PACE-Net scientific cooperation network,
in Nouméa • Delivery of results of the expert panel review
of energy and development in New Caledonia, in Nouméa • Opening
of the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam
• Conference on informal employment, seminar on nutritional strategies
and prevention of anaemia in Southeast Asia, international symposium
on flora, in Hanoi, Vietnam • Symposium
on infectious diseases, Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Three events organised, respectively on health,
rodents and transnational dynamics and recomposition
of space in Southeast Asia, in Vientiane, Laos.
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• Launch of the ERAfrica science and
technology cooperation programme between Europe
and Africa, in Pretoria, South Africa
• ICEMASA International joint laboratory
(marine and atmospheric sciences) set up in South Africa
• Agreement with Makerere University in Uganda
and Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
• Oceanography summer school and theme school
on microbial biodiversity and emerging pathogens, La Réunion
• International phytobacteriology congress, La Réunion
• Regional geology and gemmology workshop on tsavorite
deposits, Nairobi, Kenya • “Heritage,
Memory and Politics” seminar, Mombasa, Kenya.
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EAST AND
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Partnerships
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\ 48 \ 49 Institut de recherche pour le développement
International
With its centres and facilities abroad acting as
regional platforms, the IRD reaffirmed its relationships with
higher education and research establishments in Southern
countries. Closely involved in building the European
research area, the Institute argues for the importance of a
partnership ethic in which North-South collaboration starts
at the project design stage and continues all the way to
application of results. We are working in 55 projects under
Europe’s 7th Framework Programme and are coordinating
seven of them. As well as the research side, the framework
programme finances coordination of international
networks whose main purpose is to identify common
research priorities and pool resources to strengthen R&D
cooperation between the EU and the Southern regions
concerned. The IRD is also involved in international joint
laboratories, partnership structures that have emerged
from several years of collaboration. Five such laboratories
were created in 2009, in South Africa, India, Brazil, Chile
and Morocco. Agreements were signed in Peru to set up
two new laboratories: LAVI1 for the study and beneficial
use of Andean and Amazonian flora, and DISCOH2 on the
Humboldt current system. Both these laboratories stem
from strong prior collaboration in the region, particularly in
Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile.
In West and Central Africa, numerous
framework agreements with universities were signed or
renewed: with Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso universities
in Burkina Faso, with Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey,
Niger, and with Abomey Calavi and Parakou universities in
Benin. Agreements were also formalised with the national
universities of Equatorial Guinea and Ghana. CIREM, the
international research and training centre in Mbour, Senegal,
involves Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, the IRD, Senegal’s
Académie nationale des sciences et techniques, the African
Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Aims Senegal) and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature. In Cameroon,
a Master’s in plant biology was launched in partnership with
the universities of Paris 6, Cheikh Anta Diop, Dschang and
Yaoundé 1. In Mali, the Mali Contemporain programme, under
the aegis of AIRD, is intended to build the country’s human and
social sciences research capability. The regional collaboration
on oceanography research in the tropical Atlantic and the Gulf
of Guinea gave rise to a symposium in Benin attended by
researchers from nine African countries.
In East and Southern Africa and
the Indian Ocean, the IRD initiated a EuropeAfrica science and technology cooperation programme,
ERAfrica, and is coordinating it from South Africa. This
programme involves a consortium of 13 partners and aims
to establish a lasting framework for coordinating research,
developing joint actions and building scientific capacities
in this part of the world. Agreements were signed with
Makerere University in Uganda and the Tshwane University
of Technology in South Africa. Active collaboration on
geology and gemmology continued in Tanzania, Kenya and
Madagascar. On the initiative of the IRD and the universities of
Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, research projects on the genesis
of tsavorite deposits began following theme schools held in
these countries. Programmes on health, marine ecosystems
and the use of remote sensing were conducted in Réunion
in synergy with other countries of the region. For example,
work began on investigating the role of wild fauna in the
introduction, dissemination and emergence of organisms
pathogenic to humans and animals in five island nations of
the southwestern Indian Ocean.
In Asia, the year was one of sustained regional cooperation
involving the IRD and other national and international research
bodies, Northern and Southern universities, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the WHO.
In Vietnam, a framework agreement was signed with Can
Tho University and the IRD was a partner in the creation of
the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (USTH).
The Institute’s commitment here mainly concerns research
training programmes in biotechnology, environment and the
science and technology of information and communication.
1
2
Farming / Senegal.
LAVI : Laboratoire andoamazonien de chimie du vivant.
DISCOH : Dynamique du système du courant de Humboldt.
Annual report 2010
Other partnerships took shape, through new framework
agreements with the Laotian National University and Ministry
of Health and a memorandum of understanding with the
Indian Institute of Sciences. Numerous scientific meetings
were held, including the international congress on the informal
economy in Hanoi, the 4th national health forum in Laos and
regional workshops in Thailand on infectious diseases and
malnutrition. Joint actions were conducted with AUF3 and the
AFD4 to extend social science collaborations.
In the Mediterranean region,
cooperation work was strengthened. In the Middle East,
framework agreements were signed with the Lebanese
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRSL), the Egyptian
Science and Technology Development Fund, Jordan’s
Higher Council for Science and Technology, the University
of Damascus in Syria and the Arab Centre for the Studies of
Arid Zones and Dry Lands. These new partnerships concern
priority fields such as environment and water management,
food and agriculture, health and life sciences, application
of space-based technologies and social science. Under the
five research agreements deriving from these framework
agreements we were able to start several programmes
such as LIBRIS, on assessing seismic risk in Lebanon, and
SUDMED, on water resources in Syria and Lebanon. In Egypt,
a joint fund of €7.2 million was set up for a period of four
years to support scientific cooperation between French and
Egyptian researchers. In Morocco, the process already begun
with that country’s institutions was reaffirmed and opened
new prospects for synergy in research and training, through
resource sharing, the creation of international joint laboratories, etc.
The IRD took part in major regional symposiums, notably
one in Rabat on migration dynamics, return migration and
impact on societies of origin in North and West Africa, and
the FRIENDS symposium in Fez, on the risks and dangers
threatening water resources.
In Central and Latin America, the year
was punctuated by some major events, particularly the World
People’s Conference on Climate Change in Tiquipaya, Bolivia,
and the international conference on climate, sustainability
and development in semi-arid regions (ICID+18). This
conference, held in Fortaleza, Brazil, brought together over
2,000 participants from 70 countries and all continents.
The IRD was a joint organiser of the event, mobilising its
researchers to act as moderators for discussions on threesided cooperation between France, Brazil and Africa. ICID’s
recommendations focus on making the most of United
Nations conventions such as the one held in Cancún at
the end of the year. At that conference the IRD presented
its research work in environmental science, particularly its
scientific coordination of the French part of the Observatoire
Cousteau for marine and coastal environments in Mexico,
founded in 2009. Collaboration in Latin America produced
other highlights too in 2010: the farming system on the Rio
Negro was listed as intangible heritage of the Brazilian nation,
an international conference on biodiversity in the Western
Amazon basin was held in Iquitos, Peru, and the results of
the TOXBOL programme on metal pollution in the Andes were
delivered at a symposium in Bolivia. In the Andes region,
where natural hazards are a major issue, the IRD took part
in a French-Chilean scientific mission organised in the wake
of the earthquake of 4 March. On the social science side, the
Institute coordinated a major regional programme on issues
of race and ethnicity, AFRODESC, in partnership with Mexican
and Colombian academic and research institutions.
3
4
Agence universitaire de la francophonie.
Agence française de développement.
Irrigation / Syria.
Launch of the international joint laboratory ICEMASA in South Africa
The international joint laboratory ICEMASA - International Centre for Education, Marine and
Atmospheric Science over Africa – is the fruit of a shared desire by France and South Africa to
strengthen scientific partnership on issues connected with climate change and its impacts on the
natural environments and marine resources of Southern Africa and the Southern Ocean. It involves the
IRD, Ifremer and the University of Western Brittany in France and two South African multidisciplinary
structures, MA-RE (Marine Research Institute) and ACCESS (African Centre for Climate and Earth
System Science).
Memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Sciences.
The researchers are studying global climate change, its mechanisms and its effects on Africa’s climate,
ocean circulation, ocean-atmosphere exchanges and marine ecosystems and their exploitation. They
share the common goal of training and empowering an African scientific community with expertise
on these issues. The multidisciplinary MA-RE and ACCESS programmes (ocean and atmospheric
physics, biogeochemistry, ecology, fishery and economics) involve 11 South African partners including
the University of Cape Town where the French scientists working on ICEMASA are based.
www.icemasa.org
\ 50 \ 51
Institut de recherche pour le développement
Overseas France
The IRD’s five centres in the French overseas territories
are support bases for scientific cooperation in their
respective regions and play a large part in developing
multilateral relations with neighbouring countries.
Seabed / New Caledonia.
The Centre polynésien de recherche et
In Réunion, with support from the Indian Ocean
de valorisation de la biodiversité insulaire (CPRBI) opened
officially in 2010. Here the University of French Polynesia, the
Institut Louis Malardé and the IRD work together on issues of
biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources in island
environments. Two projects on pearl farming were under
way in 2010. Under a project to professionalise the pearl
farming business and assure its future, the IRD and Ifremer
worked together to provide useful data on sea currents and
the biological functioning of atoll lagoons. With support from
the European Development Fund, a programme of training,
research and international market research for Tahitian pearl
farming delivered its results to the Tahitian Presidency. From
this overall research momentum sprang the project to create
the first Polynesian joint research unit (UMR) in oceanic
island environments, involving all four establishments. The
conclusions of a study on living conditions and approaches to
poverty in the Windward Islands, conducted with the Agence
française de développement, were greeted with keen interest
by local decision makers.
Commission, a regional symposium on climate and health
was organised through the emerging diseases research
centre CRVOI1. The central aim of the symposium was to
assess the possible long-term impact of climate change on
pathologies. In partnership with the University of Réunion, the
IRD organised conferences and a summer school for recentlytrained biological oceanography researchers. The environment
ministry granted the summer school the International Year of
Biodiversity label. Also in ecosystems research, an expert
panel review on the coral reefs of Réunion was conducted
and produced recommendations on their management. The
satellite imagery receiving station in the south of the island,
intended for environmental monitoring, neared completion as
the project for the four-institution joint research unit EspaceDev was finalised. The astrophysics observatory in Réunion,
in which the IRD is a partner with INSU2, became operational.
Flora / French Polynesia.
1
Centre de Recherche et de Veille sur les maladies émergentes dans
l’Océan Indien.
2
Institut national des sciences de l’univers.
Réunion seen from space.
Annual report 2010
In New Caledonia, the IRD initiated a project to
in New Caledonia and French Polynesia and environmental
research in the Marquesas.
set up a higher education, research and innovation cluster
in New Caledonia, known as PRESICA3. The island’s main
academic and research institutions agreed to join forces
for the project. The initiative puts into practice the policy of
improving responses to local authority needs, as stated in
the Nouméa agreement and the constitutional by-law on
New Caledonia’s institutional development. Under the call
for proposals on nickel and environment research issued by
the CNRT4, the IRD’s work in this field was strengthened with
a view to encouraging sustainable management of mining
resources such as to protect New Caledonia’s natural and
human environment.
In the Caribbean, the Caribsat7 and CaraïbeHycos8 projects, both coordinated by the IRD, strengthen
our partnership with the University of Antilles-Guyane and
cooperation with neighbouring countries in ecosystem
monitoring and water resource assessment. In Martinique,
the problems of pesticide pollution in the soil prompted the
IRD to take part in organising an international symposium on
remediation of chlordecone pollution in the Caribbean and to
strengthen its provisions for research on the subject at the
Martinique agro-environment research platform.
For the Pacific region as a whole, the IRD
In French Guiana, the IRD’s partnership with
5
is piloting the PACE-Net project. The aim of PACE-Net is to
develop a network for collaboration in science and technology
between Europe, the 15 countries of the ACP (AfricaCaribbean-Pacific) group, Australia and New Zealand. The
launch meeting took place in Nouméa and the first assessment
was delivered at the University of the South Pacific in Suva,
Fiji. The IRD is also coordinating the Great Observatory of
South Pacific Environment and Land & Ocean Biodiversity,
GOPS6, which involves 16 universities and research bodies.
GOPS’ work in 2010 included monitoring coral ecosystems
the university and local authorities was strengthened with
the project of creating an international research, training
and innovation campus in biodiversity, environment and
territorial dynamics. Premises were prepared at the Montabo
site in Cayenne to house the campus, which is the result
of the IRD’s site policy and opens a new era of scientific
collaboration with neighbouring countries – Brazil, Surinam,
Guyana and Venezuela. The campus will conduct research
and consultancy work throughout the Guyana shield, the
Amazon and the Caribbean, relying on two facilities developed
and managed by the IRD: the SEAS Guyane satellite-based
Amazonian environment monitoring station and the Cayenne
herbarium. These facilities do much to boost the IRD’s national
and international profile. The programme Ma Commune vue
du Ciel (“my district seen from the sky”) produced with
TV station France-Guyane and the mayors of 22 communes
in French Guiana was a popular hit, while the OSE Guyamapá
project is an integral part of the Amazon basin cross-border
operational programme.
Contacts [email protected] - [email protected]
3
Pôle de Recherche, d’Enseignement Supérieur et d’Innovation Calédonien.
Centre national de recherche technologique sur le nickel et son
environnement.
5
PACE-Net is an INCO-Net project funded by the European Union’s
7th Framework Programme.
6
Grand Observatoire de l’environnement et de la biodiversité terrestre et
marine du Pacifique sud.
7
Système caribéen d’information environnementale: du satellite à l’acteur.
8
Système caribéen d’observation du cycle hydrologique.
4
Alcyonaria / New Caledonia.
PACE-Net: fostering scientific cooperation in the Pacific
Part of the European 7th Framework Programme, PACE-Net is designed to network
French and European research stakeholders (ministries, funding agencies and operators) with their
counterparts in the Pacific. A particular goal is to identify research areas of common interest and
work to have them taken into account in forthcoming European Union work programmes and calls
for proposals.
As project coordinator, the IRD is the task leader for scientific discussions pursued through themebased workshops, conferences and information days about European programmes. The purpose
here is to reveal shared priorities and to enhance research and technology networking for the benefit
of the Pacific countries in the ACP group.
http://pacenet.eu/
International campus / French Guiana.